Watch your back, Queen Elizabeth! The beloved British monarch gazes benignly from the Royal Mint's new 10-pence piece, apparently oblivious to the possibility that a monster might be on the flip side.

The British mint is celebrating the Loch Ness Monster with a nickel-plated steel coin, the BBC reports. It's one of 26 new 10-pence pieces in production. Some of the subjects being featured: King Arthur, James Bond and London's iconic double-decker bus.

But "Nessie," the rarely-spotted beast from the depths of a Scotland lake, appears to be getting the most attention from collectors, who reportedly crashed the Royal Mint's website when the new wares were announced.

"Celebrate a Scottish mythical beast which has captured Great Britons' imagination," The British Royal Mint states in its sales pitch for the new Nessie coin.

The mint calls the new coin series "quintessentially British."

They certainly are very British (one coin features fish and chips), but putting a fantastical creature like "Nessie" on currency isn't a novel idea. Canada set the standard a few years ago with a series of coins depicting mythical beasts -- including Bigfoot.

Offered the website i09 when the Canadian coins hit the market in 2011: "Canadian cryptid coins are the most bad-ass currency in the history of legal tender."